THE LIVES THAT LIT OUR EYES- REMEMBERING A COLOSSUS- BAB’uVUYISA QUNTA, A PERSONAL MEMOIR, BY VELI MBELE, 7 SEPTEMBER, 2021
If there was ever a person to whom the statement ‘death has robbed us’ applied, it is certainly you.I can’t believe this month marks 7 years since we laid you to rest.
For some reason, I keep going back to our last moments together.That Wednesday afternoon on 20 August, 2014, when uBaw’uMazaleni
Nelvis Qekema and I visited you at 1 Military Hospital.
I still remember how before we went to see you, you specifically asked for us to bring you three things: A nail clipper, orange juice (of a specific type) and amasi.
I still remember how Baw’uMazaleni and I agonised over where we will get the type of orange juice you wanted.Knowing how meticulous and pandantic you are, we were both a bit nervous about making sure we get you the right items.
I am still trying to make sense of the symbolic importance of his request.The truth is that, I have yet to accept that you have left us.
You have been a big influence in my growth and development (both personally and intellectually).
I owe my love for the pen, words, books and investigating the hidden aspects of our people’s history to my time spent with you at your home in Kwa-Langa, Cape Town.
The Saturday afternoons in the lounge or under the fig tree, with you lecturing the late Tebogo Mohajane,
Mendo Ramncwana and I, about, among others, Wadada Nabudere, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Jose Maria Sison, the Shining Path, Chinweizu, Cheikh Anta Diop and many other Afrikan thinkers and writers.
You may not know this, but these sessions with you, influenced the content for our weekly political education classes as the AZASCO branch at Pentech.
You never became impatient with our endless visits to your house or searching questions.You patiently and lovingly shared your encyclopedic knowledge with us.
There is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t be doing the kind of activist and writing work I am doing today, had it not been for the time I spent with you in the 90s in Cape Town.
You left us with a monumental legacy of independent thought and instilling a culture of critical intellectualism among the young people (especially activists).
You abhorred spinelessness and often said: “Those who are busy selling their souls for a job or business may know the price of everything, but they definitely don’t know the value of anything”.
I owe you an incalculable debt for all you have been to me Bhuti and it is my hope that, like you, I can inspire at least one young Black person to be the best they can be, without having to compete with anybody to achieve this.
To me, you were a father figure. A master teacher. An incisive thinker. A prolific writer. A high-calibre freedom fighter.You are without doubt, one of the legends of the Black Consciousness Movement ( BCM).
But above all, you loved Black people so much that you believed that the only way your life could be of any value-is if it is lived in service of Black people.
Enkosi ngayoyonke into Baw’uMbongwe.